Sunday, August 10, 2008

"Golden" - Edinburgh Fringe 2008

"Golden" is an attempt to create a Westminster based political satire loosely based on 'Macbeth' and on the face of it, it isn't an unreasonable concept. But a focus on the comedic is hugely damaging to the success of Theatre with Teeth's production.

While good for a few laughs, the knockabout tone removes any element of tragedy and depth from the piece and leaves it unremarkable in a sea of similarly styled student shows. Of course the other problem here is that the reality of the political machinations are frequently more interesting than anything fiction can create.

What we do have here though are five performers who cope well with the challenges of fast paced switching between multiple roles and manage to make each individual character sufficiently distinct. Nicholas Myles is particularly impressive as 'Political Ed' and 'Maguire'.

And there's a moment in the show that hints at what could have been, had the company made different choices. Out of nowhere Siobhan Williams gives 'Eva Golden' a powerful final speech where the laughs are left behind to great effect. It would have taken a brave decision to drop the comedy elements from the production but I suspect the result would have been more satisfying.

Golden runs at Rocket @ Demarco Roxy Art House at 11am until 25th August (excluding the 17th)
Image used with permission

1 Heckle

Anonymous said...

Surely the use of comedy was "Shakespearean", it is used to relax the audience and to draw them in, giving them a relationship with the characters.
The change in tone moved inexorably from comedy to tragedy, and the actors did far more than "cope well" with the characters, delivering strong individual and ensemble perfomances.
A very enjoyable morning - go see it!